Braveheart sets up £25m fund for university firms

Published on Monday 18 June 2007 14:42

A NEW £25 million fund has been set up to boost new companies coming out of Edinburgh University.

Braveheart, a technology and investment management company, will have first refusal on funding new initiatives in fields such as medicine, veterinary medicine and life sciences.

It is more than double the value of a similar partnership set up in February, between Braveheart and Strathclyde University, which is worth 12m.

The Edinburgh deal will last for eight years, with companies able to bid for funding for the first five, followed by a three-year monitoring process during which cash will be available for existing projects.

Over the past five years, 57 companies have been created at Edinburgh University, with nine out of ten still trading. Those companies have raised around 18 million in investment funding and employ over 150 staff.

Geoffrey Thomson, the chief executive of Braveheart, added: "The university has a well deserved world-class reputation for commercialisation."